Water imports discussed at meeting

Friday

Feb 14, 2014 at 12:00 PMFeb 14, 2014 at 4:34 PM

By Mike BodineSTAFF WRITERmbodine@ridgecrestca.com

The water report and plan for the Indian Wells Valley drew an expected large crowd and many questions about its findings and suggestions. The report is bleak, saying the Indian Wells Valley aquifer has been pumped of more water than has been going back in for more than 40 years.The bottom line of the report is that the valley is need of water, and more so in the future, and water importation and land use changes are the only viable solutions to the problem. The Indian Wells Valley Resource Opportunity Plan: Water Availability and Conservation Report, composed by third-party consulting group Todd Engineers, states that conservation efforts and measures to increase efficiency and trim waste of the precious resource, current or proposed, will not even come close to equalizing the overdraft, or over pumping of the aquifer. It is suggested that water importation and re-zoning or undeveloped land in the county is the only viable cure for the situation. The overdraft is even more dramatic given the severe drought the state is in.One person at the meeting asked if it was really necessary to scare the public that water is running out and that expensive importation is the only solution. “I don’t see the sky falling,” the resident asked. Lorelei Oviatt, director of Kern County Planning, responded that the sky is indeed falling for well owners whose water sources are drying up or for whom the cost of pumping water or re-drilling has become too expensive to operate. She added she is going to ask the Kern County Board of Supervisors to consider changing the zoning in the county to delay or restrict agricultural development. One of the charts in the report graphs the measure of major water user in the valley. The graph shows that municipal use by Inyokern and the city of Ridgecrest, the Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake and Searles Valley Minerals pale in comparison to the amount of water used for agriculture. Another graph showed projected water use if the current growth of agriculture in the valley, specifically pistachio groves, continues at its current rate. With the current land use regulations in place on all 25,000 acres of privately owned land zoned for agriculture in the IWV, the rate could reach 140,000 acre-feet of water per year by 2050. This far outreaches use of 7,300 AFY, the recommended amount to have balance of intake and outflow of the aquifer. Currently, all water use, minus agricultural use, is estimated at 9,000 AFY. The Kern County Planning Department held a workshop on the recently released water plan Wednesday at the Inyokern Senior Center to a standing-room-only crowd. The meeting began with a report from Todd Groundwater lead hydrologist Gus Yates to explain the findings in the plan. (Todd Engineers has recently changed its name to Todd Groundwater.) He opened by stating the IWV groundwater basin is closed, as has been the point-of-view of nearly every water study performed since 1960. A closed basin means that nearly all the water that is recharged into the basin is in the form of rainfall. Most of the rain that falls in the valley evaporates before reaching the groundwater. But, water in the form of snow in the Sierra Nevada drains down and into the basin. The closed basin distinction also means the water does not flow out toward Searles Valley or anywhere else. Yates continued with another major finding, which is that the basin is in overdraft. Put simply, this means there is more water being taken out of the basin than is going back in. This does mean all of the water will dry up at one time or a certain date, but the effects of the draft are already being felt. Well owners are having to dig deeper as the water level drops, and the cost of bringing the water to the surface rises, too. Yates added that the overdraft is the fault of no one person or group, but every user, and as such he proposed that everyone take responsibility to try to fix the problem. Many well owners are reporting a drop in water levels. Water quality is a problem as well. While the basin is massive, only one-third of the water is potable, the rest containing minerals and solids that would require expensive filtering and reverse osmosis equipment to make drinkable. The higher and higher concentrations of dissolved solids in the water is expected in an overdraft situation, Yates explained. The high salinity and minerals in the water could be used as a solution to the water shortage, but it would be expensive. However, filtering and using that water that is not yet potable but could be filtered, Yates explained, would prevent the thicker water from encroaching and contaminating further the potable water in the basin. Yates then moved onto what the future could entail. He said the biggest concern was for agricultural use. He said that under current land use regulations, a person who owns land zoned for agricultural use can plant whatever they want to plant. Oviatt explained that there are no permits needed for agriculture in the county. There are permits required for someone to drill a well, and those are given automatically. A large gasp filled the room and whispering chatter could be heard after Oviatt’s remark that, essentially, the pistachio growers in the area did not have to get a permit to grow their crop of choice. More than one in the audience demanded Oviatt begin requiring permits for agricultural uses. Oviatt said she will be asking to change zooming in the county so undeveloped land zoned for agriculture could be changed to something less water consumptive, such as business. She said she expected that not every landowner is going to like the proposal and expensive litigation may be required. She explained that if the zoning is changed there would be no need for permitting. Yates continued that there are physical measures that can be taken to alleviate the overdraft, but it will not be enough to balance the intake and outtake. He said de-mineralizing the water currently in the basin is an option, albeit an expensive one. This would not balance the basin, but would provide more water for the short term. Water banking is an option, and a good one, according to Yates. The basin is massive and has a giant holding capacity. The basin could be rented out to a larger municipality to store water for an emergency. Some of that water would be left behind, as not every drop can be pumped from a basin, and could be used by the IWV. Conservation is another option, and Yates lauded the Indian Wells Water District for its efforts in that direction. Conservation in agricultural use includes cutting down on the use of sprinklers, and much of the spray is lost to evaporation, but that loss is minimal. Yates suggested that a different crop be grown. The use of recycled water, as is already in place for water that can used for landscaping, is an option, but still not enough. Yates said that all current conservation efforts and the options he suggested would not come close to narrowing the 10,000 to 15,000 AFY overdraft. The only option is water importation, he said. This suggestion brought more gasps from the crowd. Yates explained the valley is actually at an advantage for water importation with a major water transportation corridor already in place and geographically close: the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power aqueduct that carries water from Inyo and Mono counties to Southern California. Oviatt explained how that process would work. She said first LADWP would be asked to enter into a contract for use of the aqueduct, and a pipeline of other means of transportation from the aqueduct to the valley would need to be constructed. This line would be much shorter and cheaper than having to construct one from the Kern River Valley, for example. The IWV would then buy some land or water and ask LADWP to use the water in the aqueduct as an exchange. Oviatt said LADWP owns and operates water transportation sites from Utah to Shasta County, so the IWV could buy water outside the area and give it to LADWP in exchange for water from the aqueduct. This is called a water exchange or water transfer. Another option is buying water on the spot market, which despite the name is a reliable source for water. The price of water on the spot market is dependent on conditions; water is more expensive during a drought and cheaper during wetter years. Again the basin’s massive storage capacity could prove beneficial, Yates explained. In wetter years when water prices are cheaper, water could be stored in the basin and less expensive water would have to be purchased in drier years. Public comments and Oviatt’s explanation of legal ramifications and re-zoning efforts will be published in the weekend edition of the Daily Independent.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.